The New England Masters will
be held from August 11-15 at the Blackstone Chess Academy (To Kalon
Club), 26 Main Street, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It will form part
of the Blackstone Chess Festival along with a weekend tournament, the
Blackstone Chess Festival Open, which will take place from August 16-17.

44 players from 10 different
nations, including 4 GMs, 9 IMs, 11 FMs and 1 WFM, will battle it out
over 9 rounds for a chance to win some of the $3,300 prize fund as well
as, probably more importantly to most of them, getting a shot at scoring
a GM or IM norm.

The top seed in the tournament
is GM Leonid Kritz from Germany, rated FIDE 2610, who was the winner
of the Las Vegas Masters in 2006 along with last year's New England
Masters. Other top players include GM Sergey Erenburg, GM Timur
Gareev, GM Keith Arkell and GM-Elect Josh Friedel.

The US Chess League is well
represented with Boston Blitz All-Stars Jorge Sammour-Hasbun and Denys
Shmelov providing the home crowd someone to cheer for along with IM
Eli Vovsha and Parker Zhao from Queens, IM Jacek Stopa from Dallas,
IM Dean Ippolito from New Jersey, IM Justin Sarkar and Evan Rosenberg
from New York and the previously mentioned GM Sergey Erenburg from Baltimore
and GM-Elect Josh Friedel from San Francisco.

There is also a small grouping
of New England State Champions with Denys Shmelov, Massachusetts State
Champion, being joined by FM Braden Bournival, New Hampshire State Champion,
and Miro Reverby, Rhode Island State Champion.

This year's event also sees
the arrival of various younger competitors with the youngest being Luke
Harmon from Idaho, the top rated 9 year old in the country. He
will be joined by various talented teenagers from across the country
along with a strong contingent of rapidly improving Canadian youngsters.

The opening ceremony will take
place at 4:00 pm on Monday, August 11, with round 1 beginning at 6:00
pm. On site there will be live play by play coverage on the first
floor of the club with Master commentary provided for spectators.
There will also be a live coverage of most of the games on the internet
at http://www.newenglandmasters.com/live.htm.

On the weekend following the
New England Masters there will be a weekend tournament, the Blackstone
Chess Festival Open, a 4 round Swiss which will be held from August
16-17.

This event will be in two sections,
an Open that will be FIDE rated and offers 50 Grand Prix points (limited
to players rated over 1600) and an Under 1900 section. Class prizes
and youth prizes are offered in each section and the tournament has
a projected prize fund of $4,000.